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Story CXL

, having been imprisoned in a cage with a crow, was vexed by the sight, and said: "What a loathsome aspect is this? What an odious figure! What cursed object with rude habits! O crow of separation, would that the distance of the east from the west were between us! Whoever beholds thee when he rises in the morning, the morn of a day of safety becomes evening to him. An ill-omened one like thyself is fit to keep thee company; but where in the world is one like thee?"

More strange still the crow was similarly distressed by the proximity of the parrot, and, having become disgusted, was shouting '' and lamenting the vicissitudes of time. He rubbed the claws of sorrow against each other, and said: "What ill-luck is this? What base destiny and chameleon-like times! It was befitting my dignity to strut about on a garden-wall, in the society of another crow. It is sufficient imprisonment for a devotee to be in the same stable as profligates. What sin have I committed that I have already in this life, as a punishment for it, fallen into the bonds of this calamity in company with such a conceited, uncongenial, and heedless fool? No one will approach the foot of the wall upon which they paint thy portrait. If thy place were in paradise others would select hell."

I have added this parable to let thee know that, no matter how much a learned man may hate an ignorant man, the latter hates him equally.

A hermit was among profligates when one of them, a Balkhi